tip

The extreme end of something, especially when pointed; e.g. the sharp end of a pencil.

Noun

  1. The extreme end of something, especially when pointed; e.g. the sharp end of a pencil.
    • the tip of one's nose
    • When he woke up, about half an hour after, he called it to him again, but Dash only looked sheepish and wagged the tip of his tail. - 1848, Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:
    • The present-day city of Ji’an at the southern tip of Jilin province was the second capital (3-427 CE) of the Gaogouli kingdom during its middle period. - 2004, Xiaoneng Yang, “Early Imperial China (Qin Dynasty through...

    Synonyms: extremity

  2. A piece of metal, fabric or other material used to cover the top of something for protection, utility or decoration.
    • a tip for an umbrella, a shoe, a gas burner, etc.
  3. The end of a bow of a stringed instrument that is not held.
  4. A small piece of meat.
    • chicken tips over rice, pork tips, marinated alligator tips
    • He dutifully speared a beef tip and chewed it with false gusto. - 1998, Alan Morris, “Between Earth and Sky”, in Guardians of the North, book 4; →ISBN:
  5. A piece of stiffened lining pasted on the inside of a hat crown.
  6. A thin, boarded brush made of camel's hair, used by gilders in lifting gold leaf.
  7. Synonym of eartip (“part of earbuds”).

    Synonyms: eartip

  8. the glans penis
    • my tip sticky rn
    • What's your tip color?

Origin

From Middle English tip, typ, tippe (“tip”), from Proto-Germanic *tuppijô, *tuppijǭ (“tip”), a diminutive of *tuppaz. Related to Saterland Frisian Tip (“tip”), West Frisian tippe, tip (“tip”), Dutch tip (“tip”), German Low German Tip, Tippel (“tip”), dialectal German Zipf (“tip”) (diminutive Zipfel used in Standard German), Danish tip (“tip”), Swedish tipp (“tip”), Icelandic typpi (“knob, pin, penis”). Compare also Saterland Frisian Timpe (“tip”), West Frisian timpe (“tip”), Old English tæppa (“tap, spigot”), Middle High German züpfel (“pointed end, tip”).

Forms

tips

Derived

arse over tip blacktip cocktip cork tip cryotip drip tip felt-tip filter tip fingertip foul tip French tip gum-tip hat tip hooktip look beyond the tip of one's nose look past the tip of one's nose microtip miss one's tip mushroom tip nanotip on the tip of one's tongue orange tip precursor tip Q-tip

Noun obsolete

  1. The knocking over of a skittle.
  2. An act of tipping up or tilting.
  3. An area or a place for dumping something, such as rubbish or refuse, as from a mine; a heap (see tipple); a dump.
    • There is much sad evidence, too, of the spoliation and dereliction of vanished industry: tips, slag-heaps and derelict colliery-screens among which the ubiquitous, nomad mountain sheep graze unconcernedly. - 1955 July,...
    • 1972 May 18, Jon Tinker, Must we waste rubbish?, New Scientist, page 389, As the tip slowly squashes under its own weight, bacteria rot away the organic matter, mainly anaerobically with the generation of methane.
    • 2009, Donna Kelly, 'Don't dump on Hepburn's top tip', The Hepburn Advocate, Fairfax Digital When I was a kid I used to love going to the tip.
  4. Rubbish thrown from a quarry.
  5. A recycling centre.
  6. A very untidy place.
  7. The act of deflecting with one's fingers, especially the fingertips
    • As a frenetic opening continued, Cahill - whose robust approach had already prompted Jamie Carragher to register his displeasure to Atkinson - rose above the Liverpool defence to force keeper Pepe Reina into an athletic...
  8. A tram for expeditiously transferring coal.

Origin

From Late Middle English tippen, possibly from North Germanic/Scandinavian (compare Swedish tippa (“to topple over”)), or a special use of Etymology 1.

Forms

tips

Derived

rubbish tip tip credit tip shop tip wage credit

Noun Entry 3

  1. A small monetary gift.
    • Workers in the American service industry usually depend on tips to even make minimum wage.
    • “Did you tip him enough to do any good? They only work for tips.” “I didn’t know that,” I said. “I thought the hotel paid them something on the side.” “I mean they will only do something for you for a substantial tip....
    • Tips were an important part of porters' income, and at Christmas passengers felt there was extra pressure to give them - despite some perceiving the level of service to be poor. - 2022 December 14, David Turner, “The...

    1. A gratuity; a small amount of money left for a bartender, waiter, taxi driver or other service worker as a token of appreciation, often calculated as a percentage of the bill.

    2. (dated) A gratuity given to someone who voluntarily provides assistance.

      • A half crown tip put the deputy's knowledge at my disposal, and I learned that Mr. Bloxam [...] had left for his work at five o'clock that morning. - 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable...
      • So Lord Tottenham said, "Well, I'm much obliged any way. And now I come to look at you—of course, you're not young ruffians, but gentlemen's sons, eh? Still, you won't be above taking a tip from an old boy—I wasn't when...

    3. (dated) A small monetary gift given to a child from an older relative or family friend.

      • “I hope,” said Uncle Andrew presently in a very high and mighty voice, just as if he were a perfect Uncle who had just given one a handsome tip and some good advice - 1955, C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew:

Origin

Originally thieves' slang, of uncertain origin; according to the OED, probably related to sense 1.

Forms

tips

Synonyms

gratuity

Derived

tip creep tip cup tipflation tip jar tipless tipmost tipworthy

Noun Entry 4

  1. A piece of private or secret information, especially imparted by someone with expert knowledge about sporting odds, business performance etc.
    • hot stock tips
  2. A piece of advice.
    • tips and tricks
  3. A prediction of the winning team in a football game by a participant in a footy tipping competition.
    • Thus, this is a tricky tip; Port’s inconsistency combined with the higher ladder placing of Adelaide have me leaning the latter’s way. - 2019 July 4, Stirling Coates, “The Roar's AFL expert tips and predictions: Round...
    • Another bye round, another dose of Thursday night footy and that means you have to get your tips in early. - 2016 June 29, “AFL tipping 2016: round 15 Expert tips from Herald Sun”, in Herald Sun:
  4. A prediction about the outcome of something.
    • My guess, Senator Bernardi, is that Mr Rudd will take over. He will immediately say: 'I made a mistake on the carbon tax. We're not going to introduce it and we will go to an election.' There is my tip. - 2012 June 27,...
    • My tip is he can be top 50 after the Australian summer of tennis. - 2022 July 18, Jedd Zetzer, “Jason Kubler reaches new heights in Newport”, in SEN:

Origin

Probably from tip (“to give, pass”) or tip (“to tap”), or a combination of the two.

Forms

tips

Synonyms

hint

Hyponyms

pro tip

Derived

calltip hot tip infotip stock tip tip-off tip sheet tipsheet tipster tooltip

Noun Entry 5

  1. A kick or phase; one's current habits or behaviour.
  2. A particular arena or sphere of interest; a front.

Forms

tips

Noun archaic

  1. A light blow or tap.

Origin

Uncertain, perhaps related to Etymology 1 and cognate with Dutch tippen, German tippen, Swedish tippa.

Forms

tips

Verb Entry 7

  1. to become knocked over, fall down or overturn.
  2. to be, or come to be, in a tilted or sloping position; (to cause) to become unbalanced.
    • the brief suspended agony of the boat, as it would tip for an instant on the knife-like edge of the sharper waves, that almost seemed threatening to cut it in two […] - 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or,...
    • There is little chance that the EU’s watchdogs have, until now, simply missed the evidence of a deeper malaise. The red flags signalling a democratic deficit have always been prominent: from the long-standing...
  3. To cause the contents of a container to be emptied out by tilting it.
    • The workshop with its smithy is still intact, also the loading stage where the narrow-gauge wagons tipped their contents into those of the G.W.R. - 1941 June, “Notes and News: The Derelict Glyn Valley Tramway”, in...
  4. To drink.
  5. To dump (refuse).
  6. To pour a libation or a liquid from a container, particularly from a forty of malt liquor.
    • I tip my 40 to your memory. - 1993, DRS, Gangsta Lean (This Is For My Homies):
  7. To deflect with one′s fingers, especially one′s fingertips.
    • Lampard was replaced by Kalou but the substitute immediately gave the ball to Jonas, whose 25-yard curler was tipped wide by Cech. - 2011 September 28, Jon Smith, “Valencia 1 - 1 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport:

Forms

tips tipping tipped

Derived

antitip fly-tip overtip tip back tipcart tip down tip it down tipless tip off tip one's hand tip one's hat tip out tippability tippable tipper tippy tip someone's velvet tipsy tip the can tip the daddle tip the double tip the gaff tip the wink tip up

Verb Entry 8

  1. To give a piece of private information to; to inform (someone) of a clue, secret knowledge, etc.
    • Dirks was an investment analyst who learned from a former employee of Equity Funding that the company had been fraudulently manufacturing insurance policies. Dirks tipped several institutions which then liquidated $16...
    • In rare instances, the provision logically could apply to the private right of action given to contemporaneous traders to recover for insider trading (e.g., a case where an insider tipped an associate about some...
    • If the institutional trading patterns we observe are a result of tipping, rather than precipitated by some other event, then we should see only a slight increase in the number of institutions active in the market...
  2. To enter a prediction of the winning team of a football game, as part of a footy tipping competition.
    • The rest of Saturday’s games have tantalising opportunities for upsets – but I’m going to tip conservatively. - 2022 May 5, Tim Miller, “The Roar's AFL expert tips and predictions: Round 8”, in The Roar:
    • I tipped all the home teams except for the Sharks and Storm. - 2010 April 23, Spiral, “Stampede Tipping Comp 2010!”, in Cowboys Stampede:
  3. To predict something having a particular outcome.
    • I'm tipping that, although complex accounting treatments tend to separate capital items and recurrent programs and impede overall visibility, there are significant overspends across the infrastructure portfolio. - 2019...
    • Liz Truss is widely tipped to defeat rival Rishi Sunak to become the new British prime minister. - 2022 September 4, Dominic McGrath, “Truss tipped to win UK leadership race”, in The Canberra Times:
    • The prime minister was widely tipped to call the election this weekend for 12 April, allowing Labor to avoid a pre-ballot budget that is expected to confirm a return to deficit. - 2025 March 8, “Federal government to...

Forms

tips tipping tipped

Derived

tip off tipping footy tipping

Verb Entry 9

  1. To give a small gratuity to, especially to an employee of someone who provides a service.
    • You should always tip your waiter in the United States and most third world countries.
    • Hire of bedding, and food in the restaurant cars is cheap, and passengers are officially encouraged not to tip company's servants—but they do. - 1950 April, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Kenya-Uganda Railway”, in Railway...
    • “Did you tip him enough to do any good? They only work for tips.” “I didn’t know that,” I said. “I thought the hotel paid them something on the side.” “I mean they will only do something for you for a substantial tip....
  2. To give, pass.
    • "Done say I to that, Reuben, tip me your fin, my spark, and it shall be a bet." - 1839, Dearden's Miscellany, volumes 1-2, page 661:

Forms

tips tipping tipped

Derived

overtip tippee tipper tipping undertip

Verb Entry 10

  1. To provide with a tip; to cover the tip of.
    • I thinke he thinkes vpon the sauage bull: / Tush, feare not man, wee'll tip thy hornes with gold, / And all Europa shall reioyce at thee [...]. - 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about...
    • truncheon tipped with iron head - 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […],...
    • The furry nations harbour-tipt with jet, / Fair ermines spotless as the snows they press. - a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Winter”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […],...

Forms

tips tipping tipped

Derived

retip tip one's hand tip one's hat tip over tip the balance tip the scales

Verb archaic

  1. To hit quickly and lightly; to tap.
    • A third rogue tips me by the elbow. - 1708, Squire Bickerstaff Detected, John Partridge:

Forms

tips tipping tipped